Variance in recovery of periodontitis-associated bacteria caused by sampling technique and laboratory processing

The influence of sampling procedure and of laboratory processing on the recovery of Bacteroides gingivalis, Bacteroides intermedius, and Actinobacillus antinomycetemcomitans from periodontitis sites was evaluated. Thirty-three adult subjects with severe periodontitis participated in the study. In all, 462 samples from 81 sites were examined. The samples were taken using the paper point technique. The cultivations were performed by use of enriched Brucella agar for determination of total colony-forming units and Bacteroides species, and trypticase soy bean agar for determination of A. actinomycetemcomitans. The risk of getting a false negative result was 4% for B. gingivalis, 20% for B. intermedius, and 38% for A. actinomycetemcomitans. It was considerably reduced if duplicate samples were taken. The sampling procedure alone explained up to 98% of the false-negative results.